Idiots Stand Together
by AmenToTheMangaBible11
Summary: They were strange, they were friends, they were idiots always running from the cops when they weren't sitting in class. They just had to drag poor Itachi into it all.


Okay, so some of you may recognize this as an excerpt from my story 'You'll Surrender Eventually.' I decided that this actually stood alone as a comic piece of work in itself, so here it is! If you love the Akatsuki, you'll love hearing how I think they'd get together. Enjoy!

**Disclaimer: **AMB11 doesn't own any part of Naruto, just the story listed-

Hidan: Would you shut up already Author?! I'm trying to read here.

Deidara: Dude, shut it! She'll cut us from the story or something.

Hidan: Well she was being all distracting and sh-

_(smack!)_

...I really hate you all.

Itachi: With that lovely parting comment, let's begin!

AMB11: Wait I didn't get to fini-!

* * *

People Are Only Idiots When They're With Friends.

"I say we let him in. He may be new, but he's got this look to him that just screams Akatsuki, yeah."

"I don't know. Apparently his dad's the new chief of police. That might pose a problem." Kisame kicked his feet up on the desk in front of him and leaned to the side in his chair, the wooden legs creaking under his weight. Deidara flicked his lighter on under his desk, grinning brightly while he observed the dark-haired new comer that was reading at the front of the class.

"Not if he's cool about it, un. Just 'cuz his pop's a stiff doesn't mean he's one too, yeah." Deidara tore a page out of the spiral on his desk and lit the edge on fire, the flame reflecting in his clear blue eyes. "And it's not like everything we do is illegal. Just the fun stuff, yeah." Deidara blew the flame out when it started to smoke. Kisame kicked the girl beside him out of her chair when he caught the blue-haired girl copying off of his assignment.

"Mr. Hoshigake! To the principal's office immediately." The teacher stood up behind his desk, glaring at the enormous teenager at the back of the room from behind his sunglasses.

"Why Teach?" Kisame leaned back farther in his chair and crossed his arms behind his head, smiling smugly at the man that was trying his best to seem intimidating.

"You just kicked a student out of their seat during a lesson. Do I need any other reason?" Ebisu pulled his sunglasses off and slammed his hand down on his desk. "Now go before I have to call security to come escort you again!"

"When're you gonna let that go? The kid lived. And anyways Teach, she was cheatin'. You're gonna get me in trouble for keepin' my work to myself?" Deidara bit his lip to keep from laughing and reached below the desks and gave Kisame a high five. "If you're gonna send me, then you should send the instigator too, otherwise it just ain't fair." Kisame smirked at the poor teacher.

Ebisu looked between the pissed-looking girl that was climbing back up into her chair and the teenager that was probably about two and a half times his size. "Ms. Konan, is this true? Were you cheating off of Mr. Hoshigake?"

"Not like it'd do her much good." Kisame elbowed Deidara in the side at his mumbled comment, glaring at the blonde, who was struggling to control himself. Kisame glanced at the clock hanging above the teachers' head before focusing back on the man himself, who was turning red under the strain of not yelling at the two blue-haired students.

"No sir, I wasn't." Konan glared at Kisame out of the corner of her eye, rubbing a sore spot on her arm from where she'd hit the ground.

"Well there you have it. You can't just randomly kick a student-"

"Wait, wait. So, you'll believe her word right off the back without any sort of proof as to whether or not she's lying, but you won't believe Hoshigake's story without definitive proof? That's biased Mr. Ebisu." Itachi smiled politely at his superior, his eyes closed as he spoke. Ebisu's jaw dropped in disbelief at the rebellion of his students. What happened to the good old days where kids listened when he spoke?

He fell back into the chair behind his desk, fumbling with the keys on his keyboard as he typed something hastily to buy some time. "If you believe one side of the story without being shown any sort of evidence, then you'd of course have to believe the other side to be just as true, even if it is only a 50/50 percent chance that either of them is correct. Besides, in all reality, this whole argument over who is in the wrong and should be punished is more disrupting than the incident was itself from another student's perspective." The raven-haired teen folded his hands and crossed his legs, his gaze making the older man sweat nervously under its' intensity. Ebisu slipped his glasses back on to break the uncomfortable staring contest.

"You-you're absolutely correct Mr. Uchiha. I-it would be... unfair of me to do that. What exactly would you suggest I do then?" Ebisu was testing Itachi, and he knew that the younger man knew as well.

"Well," Itachi smirked over his shoulder at Kisame, "You could always punish them both for the reasons of cheating and injuring another student, but you aren't entirely sure you understand this situation completely. Are you positive that the kick was intentional or that she was indeed cheating?" Ebisu stiffened visibly. "Perhaps Ms. Konan was leaning out of her seat to find something she'd dropped, or stretching when Mr. Hoshigake moved his feet from on top of his desk. He seemed to have been occupied with his conversation with the feminine blonde that's been lighting things on fire for the past hour. It's possible that the entire incident was an accident and that neither is at fault since neither of them is owning up to being at fault. Don't you think that seems likely, Mr. Ebisu?"

The entire class stared at the individual that had just opposed the teacher and had even gone so far as to say he was wrong. Ebisu looked from Itachi, who was smiling smugly, to Kisame and Konan, both of which refused to look at each other, and Deidara, who he'd be sure to grab after class to talk with him about his unhealthy obsession with fire.

"I-it's possible that you could be r-right in saying that neither is at fault, but it's a-also likely that they did-" The bell rang outside the door, the class over for the day. Kisame gathered his things and headed out the door, all of the students giving him a wide berth. He clapped Ebisu soundly on the back with his large hand, laughing at the confused expression on the smaller man's face before heading out into the hallway to get a few things from his locker for his weekend assignments.

Deidara hurried after his friend, gasping for breath when he'd finally gotten away from Ebisu, who'd chased him halfway down the hallway screaming something about arson and how it was illegal.

Deidara jumped to hit Kisame on the back of the head, the laughter he'd been holding in since Kisame had kicked Konan over finally spilling out loudly. The two hurried out the front of the high school and towards the gate to wait for the new kid.

Itachi stopped his skateboard when he saw Kisame and the blonde from his class waiting at the gate. He flipped the board up into his hands when they started pushing their way through the crowd once they'd spotted him. He relaxed under the shade of the tree he'd stopped beside, choosing to just wait where he was rather than fight his way through the people rushing off of the campus and into the weekend they'd been craving since 8am Monday morning.

Kisame made it to Itachi first, most of the crowd parting to let him through after he'd pushed one of the cheerleaders into a rose bush on the side of the stone pathway. Eh, she'd live.

Deidara squeezed out of the crowd behind the giant, collapsing into another fit of laughter when he finally saw Itachi face-to-face.

"Thanks back there kid. I'd have gotten suspended for sure, this being my 13th offense and all." Kisame held his hand out to the older Uchiha, who shook the much larger hand with his own politely. Deidara hugged Itachi tightly, ruffling his messy dark hair before he was finally pried off of the choking boy by Kisame. Deidara struggled to get back down to the ground, Kisame's arms locked around his shoulders, keeping the blonde nearly half a foot off of the ground.

Itachi flipped his hair back into place, running his hand through the shaggy mess before smiling at the two idiots in front of him. He crossed his arms across his chest and pushed his glasses up on his nose, his gaze boring a hole in the ground at Kisame's feet. "No problem. I haven't gotten to mess with the teachers since I've been here yet, and you just provided me the perfect chance to screw with him a bit."

Kisame finally dropped Deidara to the ground, the blonde immediately jumping back to his feet with a crooked smile lighting up his face. "Name's Deidara, by the way, yeah. I haven't officially met you yet, Uchiha." Deidara slung his arm around Itachi's shoulder.

"Is he always this eccentric?" Itachi pushed Deidara away, palm flat against the blonde's face, when he tried to kiss him on the cheek in greeting.

"What can I say? Kid's foreign. Must be a customary thing." Kisame walked around Itachi, examining the short male quickly before stopping in front of him again, Deidara still leeched to the smaller man tightly. "You're a little thing, aren't you?"

Itachi sighed and elbowed Deidara hard enough to knock the air out of his lungs. "Maybe I'm not short. You're just freakishly tall in case you haven't noticed."

"Got a mouth on you too, kid." Kisame put his hand on top of Itachi's head, the palm covering the entirety of Itachi's crown, and ruffled his hair until Itachi smacked the hand away. "I like you little guy. You busy today?"

"Not really." Deidara stole the skateboard from Itachi's hands, running his fingers over the hand-crafted black and white explosion decoupage design on the back in appreciation.

"Nice board, un. I really like the red center piece with the three tomoe in the middle. It really draws your eye, yeah. You do this?" Itachi nodded, glad that someone, even if it was the psychotic kid that had been burning paper in class, appreciated all of the work he'd put into decorating his board.

Kisame put his arm around the blonde's shoulder and crushed him against his side, laughing heartily. "This kid'll talk your ear off about pottery if you let him." Deidara handed the board back to Itachi, who slung it around his shoulders, brushing off the sleeve of his blazer when a bit of dirt fell off of the wheel.

"So, you wanna hang out with our crew since you probably don't know too many people around here yet?"

Itachi pushed his glasses up and loosened the tie around his neck while he thought. "Sure, why not. You guys want to come back to my place for the afternoon?"

"Sounds great, yeah. We're a big group though, un. You got room?"

Itachi smirked deviously. "Not a problem."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"You weren't freakin' kidding us kid. This place makes me feel small." The group of eight made their way up the driveway, Itachi at the front of the pack as they passed the enormous garden and fountain to the right of the cobblestone path once they'd made it past the padlocked gates at the entrance.

"You get used to it. This place is smaller than my last house. We downgraded after my mom left." Itachi waved at the camera that was hanging from the arch above the much smaller gate right in front of the grand front doors. He threw his skateboard off to the side of the porch, frowning in irritation when it hit the side of the four-car garage. The doors opened for the large group of teens, Itachi walking up the concrete stairs while the boys behind him followed up a bit more slowly.

"Kisame, still have any doubts about letting him in Akatsuki, yeah?" Deidara elbowed the large 14 year old, grinning crookedly in amusement. Kisame just shook his head, following the short raven-haired teen into the foyer, a little cautious at walking on the polished marble floors.

"So, you guys want to tell me your names? I don't know most of you." Itachi turned to his left at the end of the foyer and headed up the curving staircase, fiddling with his key ring until he'd reached the first landing. He ran his hand daintily along the ornate banister, taking the stairs two at a time until he turned off at the next landing and waited for the group that he'd met outside of the school gates after he'd accepted Kisame's invitation.

"Well, most of them don't really like to talk, and the one that does, you really won't want to, so I'll introduce everybody for you, yeah." Deidara ducked when the extremely pale teen beside him smacked out at him, cursing loudly in the process. "Told ya you wouldn't want him to talk, yeah. Well, Toilet Mouth here is Hidan. Redhead Shorty McGee over there is Sasori, un." Sasori stared blankly at Deidara, the slight twitch of his brow indicating he was contemplating throttling the blonde for the short comment, even if he did only come up to the shoulders of the rest of the group.

Itachi turned the corner, his shoes squeaking slightly on the floor when the carpet ran into the beginning of the hardwood flooring. "Nice to meet you. At least this means I'm not the smallest one here." Itachi patted Sasori on the shoulder in sympathy, but just received a bored stare in response.

"The creeper is Kakuzu. Don't let him see your wallet if he asks, yeah." Deidara whispered the last part into Itachi's ear while pointing at Kakuzu- who had a hood pulled over his head and a scarf wrapped around his neck- over his shoulder. "And finally is Zetsu-wait. Where's Zetsu? He followed us in, un."

Sasori sighed and headed back down the hallway they'd come from, dragging back a scary looking young man that was holding the flower vase from the foyer back to the group just as Itachi opened the door to his room to let the let inside.

"Why do you have that Zetsu?" Kisame asked, sticking his head into the doorway to look around the room that seemed much too large to be considered a bedroom.

"It's **our **friend..." Zetsu petted the petals on the tulip in the vase gently, smiling despite the nervous twitch that shook his head to the left every few seconds.

"You took your meds at lunch, right?" Zetsu nodded, staring intently at the flowers while he sat down in the corner of the room, the highlights in his shaggy hair glowing a luminescent green when he moved into a shadow.

"Yeah... Well... That's Zetsu, yeah. He's pretty cool when you catch him on a good day, un."

"Alright then, it's nice to meet all of you. Take a seat and make yourselves comfortable. I have to inform my father that I'm home and then I'll have someone bring something up for all of us." Itachi walked out into the hall and flipped the buzzer on the intercom system, selecting his father's study from the selection on the panel. "I'm home, and I've brought a few... guests." Miscreant honestly felt like a better word, but he didn't want to have them kicked out. The cheerleader plucking thorns out of places thorns should never be came to mind. Kisame had done _that _with a smile.

_"Alright. Do I need to have extra places set for them at supper?" _Fugaku's voice crackled out over the speaker. Itachi turned to the open door to his room, each of his guests nodding, a few more enthusiastically than others in response to Fugaku's question.

"Yes please, Father. Eight if you will. Thank you. Do you think you could ask the kitchen staff to send something up to tide us over for a while? I'll take some to Sasuke."

_"Hn."_ The system went quiet after the curt response, and Itachi headed back to his room, joining the circle the guys has formed on the thick carpet in the middle of the room. Itachi flicked the radio on from the universal remote he'd taken from the dresser beside the door and then crossed his legs in front of him, waiting for one of his guests to make what was bound to be a ridiculous comment about something they'd seen since they'd arrived.

"Who's Sasuke?" Itachi blinked when Kisame piped up from across the room where he was playing with a rubik's cube he'd plucked off of the desk built into the wall. Now that was a question he hadn't expected.

"He's my younger brother."

"You have a little brother! How cute, yeah. Does he look like you?" Deidara was lying on his stomach across from Itachi in the circle, his head resting on top of his arms, his long blonde hair billowing out onto the floor around him.

"You'll get to see him at dinner I guess, so you can tell me then. A lot of people tell us we look alike, but I've never seen it."

"Itachi! Where are you? Ms. Anko told me to bring this stuff to you since she didn't want to climb the stairs. Lazy old woman." Sasuke pushed the door to Itachi's room open with his shoulder and backed inside, a large silver tray full of homemade snacks in his arms. Sasuke's eyes widened when he saw the room full of people. "Who're the thugs?" Itachi poked his brother in the forehead and took the tray from his hands while Sasuke rubbed at the red spot, glaring down on his older brother.

"Your kid brother is taller than you?" Kisame chucked the rubik's cube onto Itachi's bed, frustrated when he couldn't get more than two sides done. Sasori coughed lightly, an incredibly slight smile breaking across his lips that he tried to hide behind his hand.

"You got Pinocchio to smile! Congrats Fish Face." Hidan swung his legs over the back of the couch that was up against the wall between the two floor-to-ceiling windows and hung his head over the front of the cushions so that he was upside down, all of the blood rushing down to his head. The albino cussed loudly when Sasori kicked him in the side of the head and he fell to the ground with a loud thud, swearing enough to put a sailor to shame.

"Watch it, there's a kid in here!" Kisame sat down on top of Hidan, who was the closest to him in size but no where near big enough to heave the blue-haired giant off of him, to get him to be quiet. "So, how old are you kiddo?"

Sasuke leaned against the door frame and shoved his hands in the pockets of his junior high uniform issue pants. "I'm a year under you all, but I just turned 14. I'm still at the junior high though; 8th grade."

"You're a bit old to be in the junior school, don't you think? Most of the 9th grade are your age. Heck, you're as old as me just about." Kisame smiled brightly, and Itachi noticed that he'd had his teeth filed to points in the front.

"I got held back because my birthday is late in the year. Two years of kindergarten though. Yahoo!" Sasuke pumped his fist halfheartedly and rolled his eyes, his head rolling onto the frame above his shoulder. "Itachi turns 16 this summer though."

"You're that old, yeah?" Deidara shoved a handful of cake into his mouth, finishing his sentence while he licked the frosting off of his fingers.

"Yeah. I lived in Japan for a few years with my mother while she fought for custody over me right after I turned thirteen. I just got back a week ago, which is why I'm starting classes here halfway through the second semester. My father sent me to the 9th grade instead of the 10th when I moved back to the US in an attempt to put me on level with what I'd been studying before since I was in a special learning program abroad. I wasn't mainstreamed, more like privately taught, and I got a level behind in my studies." Itachi shooed his brother out the door and shut it behind him and turned around to see Deidara staring at him intently.

"Would you take your glasses off for a second Itachi?" Deidara stood up after wiping his hands off on a napkin and walked behind Itachi, pulling the hair tie that was holding up half of his hair out of the thick blonde tresses, and stretching it around his wrist.

"Why?" Itachi slid his glasses off of his nose and folded them up gently. Deidara pulled Itachi's hair back behind his head, parting his bangs slightly off center in the process. The blonde tied the silky mass of dark hair back with his hair tie loosely at the base of Itachi's neck and hurried back around to his front.

"Much better, yeah!" Deidara scurried back over to the snacks, most of which had been scarfed by Kisame and Hidan in his absence. Itachi peeked at himself in the mirror behind him from under his bangs, his eyes widening at the drastic change.

"Woah..."

"Great improvement kid. Your hair was driving me nuts. If you're gonna be one of us, you've gotta have the look." Kisame finished off the sushi and spun around in the desk chair he'd pulled over to the group to face Itachi.

"Excuse me?"

"We're known as the Akatsuki by most people." Kakuzu pocketed a small knickknack from Itachi's bookshelf while he spoke, not even bothering to hide the fact that he was stealing something that was worth quite a bit of money.

"We're a gang." Sasori looked up at Itachi from his side, his voice quiet and monotone. "Not necessarily dangerous to others beside ourselves, but well known anyways."

"We've all got a specific look or characteristic about us that make us odd-balls in a group. Ever seen that one Christmas special... Well, whatever. We're like the band of misfits. I'm a 6'2" fourteen year old with blue hair and naturally pointed teeth for God's-sake. It's hard to make friends." Itachi felt a bit of pity stab at his chest for the odd-looking giant.

"I'm 4'5" and not much interests me, but these guys don't bore me, so I can put up with them." That was the most emotion Itachi had seen from Sasori yet, and he was glad that the kid at least had his people that understood him well.

"I've got a green card, which I'm surprised hasn't been taken away yet considering how many acts of arson I've been accused of, yeah. Plus, I kinda look like a male version of Barbie, un. One can only take so many gay guys trying to pick you up when you're straight, yeah." Somehow, the fact that gay men hit on Deidara didn't surprise Itachi as much as the fact that Deidara himself wasn't gay. "Kakuzu over there was voted "Most Likely To Be Sent To Prison For Robbing A Swiss Bank" as a second grader, yeah." Deidara cracked up at his own statement, Kisame joining in heartily afterward.

"Hidan has a difficult time saying a single sentence without cussing. That and he's so white he glows under black lights." Kakuzu flipped through a wallet that Itachi didn't recognize, but immediately associated with the albino teen when Hidan lunged at Kakuzu, swearing his head off.

"And Zetsu over there talks to himself more often than anyone else. At least he's always got somebody to talk to." Kisame spun around in the wheeled chair once more. "And you, kid. You look like a model, but you hide behind your hair and glasses, why? You could fit into any social group you wanted looking like that."

"I'm weird looking in my own way. Plus I've got a bit of a smart mouth." Itachi's eyes were downcast, his bangs shadowing his face as he leaned against the door behind him.

"How come you won't look at any of us, yeah? Now that you mention it, you never look at anybody. We know Kisame's ugly, but it isn't that bad, un." Kisame smacked Deidara over the head, smiling when the blonde complained about his hair.

Itachi smiled and laughed breathily, running his fingers through his bangs, pinning them back against his head. He tilted his head up, locking eyes with the blonde, who flinched when blood-red met ice-blue. Deidara scrambled backwards a few steps, his eyes still hypnotically locked on Itachi's. The blonde swallowed thickly.

"Holy crap." Itachi glanced at Kisame, who immediately shivered under the intensity of Itachi's gaze, even if it was only for a split second. "So that's why Ebisu put his glasses on before looking at you."

"It scares the living crap out of most people." Itachi dropped his bangs, but kept his gaze trained on the people around the room, flitting between each of them. "Except girls. Apparently I look like a vampire or something." Kisame laughed, and the awkward silence was broken, the atmosphere becoming comfortable once again.

"I think it's freakin' awesome, yeah!" Deidara smiled lopsidedly at Itachi. "I'd say it qualifies, Kisame. Remind me to never challenge you to a staring contest though, yeah. It's like you hypnotize people."

"Welcome to the Akatsuki kid!" Itachi's smile brightened.

* * *

"Is that the Uchiha?"

Itachi, pulled his backpack higher up on his shoulder subconsciously when the whispers around him grew louder. His fingers rested delicately at the bridge of his nose, the absence of his glasses reminding him once again why everyone was staring at him when he could usually get around unnoticed. He hung his head a bit lower, trying his hardest to get the hair that was pulled back from his face to fall back to it's usual place.

"Get your head up old man." Itachi sighed wearily when a heavy hand rested itself on his small shoulder. The short young man turned his mildly angry gaze on the giant beside him.

"They're staring." Itachi stopped at his locker on the left side of the hall, spinning through the combination impossibly quickly, and digging out his heavy history text book.

"Yeah? I guess they are." Itachi looked up questioningly at Kisame at the tone of the tall boy's voice. Did he not notice the awkward or frightened stares the two of them were getting?

"You... Didn't notice?"

"Of course not. People are always looking at me!" Kisame clapped Itachi on the back, the smaller male stumbling under the heavy onslaught, slamming his locker shut a lot louder than he'd intended. "If people are going to stare, why should I care about every person that does? I mean, I'm something to stare at after all. I'd be more worried if I didn't get strange looks."

"You would?" Itachi slung his bag back onto his shoulder and shoved his textbook into the large pocket, focusing his gaze once again on his large companion.

"Yeah. I've gotten so used to being watched, that if somebody wasn't looking, I'd have to give 'em a reason to look." The blue-haired teen winked jerkily and slammed the locker of some upperclassman as they walked past it. "Listen kid, you're an Akatsuki. Don't let people walk all over you, or else we'll all regret letting you in."

"I see." Itachi tightened the stylish ponytail at the base of his neck and raised his eyes up from the tile floor.

"Who slammed that locker?" Kisame and Itachi froze in their steps at the teacher's voice, and turned slowly to face the older students being confronted. The two young men looked from the teacher to Kisame, and flinched at the angry look the underclassman shot them in warning. "Well? Was it you, Haku, or was it your boyfriend here?"

"We broke up, and you know that Iruka." Zabuza crossed his arms angrily and shared an angry look with Haku. "Anyways, it wasn't us."

"Well," Iruka pinched the skin between his nose to calm the headache forming from the arrogance of the two seniors, "Who was it then? Someone's got to get a write up." Kisame took a step back, and Haku's eyes flickered over to the small movement. An eerily feminine smile lit up the teen's face, his dark eyes narrowing.

"They did it." Iruka turned to face the odd pair standing a few steps away. A vein in Kisame's neck bulged out at bit, his pointed teeth clenched together tightly; he was going to mangle the gay twerp for ratting him out later.

"Well, Hoshigake. This doesn't surprise me-"

"Mr. Umino. Let's not jump to conclusions, shall we." Itachi's eyes narrowed threateningly when he took a step forward, his fingers shoved into his back pockets. Kisame put a hand on the small teen's shoulder to hold him back, but receded when Itachi's bloody gaze turned to him momentarily in warning. The corners of his lips slipped up into the gentlest of smiles as he regarded the teacher. "That wouldn't be a very good idea." Itachi's smile fell to a grim slash.

"Iruka! You're going to let him threaten you?" Haku pulled Zabuza out of the way when Itachi approached the group in measured steps.

"We really must be going Mr. Umino. Thank you so much for understanding." Itachi shook the teacher's hand politely, the smile returning to his face when Iruka nodded slowly in agreement. Itachi released his hand and turned slowly, smirking triumphantly at the older students when he walked by, proud when they glared in response. Iruka rubbed his eyes furiously, swearing repeatedly in his head. He blinked to get rid of the itchiness in his eyes and to clear the tears from his vision.

The bell rang loudly in the hallway, and the students hurried to their lockers to get last minute things, kiss partners goodbye, or to avoid the two students walking down the middle of the hallway. Zabuza and Haku scurried off into the crowd in the opposite direction of the younger students they'd confronted.

Being a high school teacher seriously wasn't worth it anymore.

The young teacher stumbled back into his empty classroom and sat at his desk, sniffling a bit. He dropped his forehead to the cool wood, glad that this period was his planning period and that he didn't have a class. Iruka wiped a tear that fell down his cheek with the back of his hand, his mouth folding to a grim frown.

"How'd he do it? I... I couldn't look away even though it hurt." The brunette groaned and rubbed at his neck, sitting back in his rolling chair. He glanced out the window of his room that looked out into the hallway and glared at the back of the monstrous teenager and his slight companion. "No one would believe me anyway."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"What the heck did you do, kid?" Kisame shouldered the classroom door open and laughed when the students already inside the room jumped in surprise.

"I'm persuasive." Itachi shrugged halfheartedly and dumped his bag onto his desk in the middle of the classroom, sliding into the seat gracefully. Kisame dumped the kid out of the seat next to Itachi's and pointed to his original seat in the back. The disheveled student gathered his belongings angrily and stormed to the back of the room in a fit of rage, taking the seat beside Konan in a huff.

"Kisame, where's Deidara?" Itachi raised his eyebrow in question.

"Everybody duck and cover, yeah!"

Kisame pushed Itachi out of his chair and did his best to cram himself under his desk, just managing the feat before a smoking object crashed through the window and onto Ebisu's desk, sparks flying everywhere. A few pages caught fire, the entire desk top catching flame within seconds. Smoke rose in a black cloud to the white-tiled ceiling. Itachi peeked over the edge of his desk, eyes wide at the charred mess at the front of the classroom. The tiny red-head that was ducked down in the aisle behind him tapped him on the shoulder.

"Found him." The two of them smiled. Sasori held Itachi's intimidating gaze with his honey-colored stare while they waited for the sprinklers to come on and put out the fire. There was a second explosion at the front of the room, and several of the students rushed past the flailing firework to the door. Itachi put his hand on Sasori's back and nudged him in the direction the others had fled just as another spit of sparks flew from the front of the room. The Uchiha ducked down and covered his head when another firework shot through another of the large windows and whistled over his head.

"We're getting out of here kid!" Itachi felt himself getting lifted and vaguely registered that the red-head that had been inching towards the door was thrown over Kisame's other shoulder before the giant rushed toward the door, kicking the exploding object out of his way. Students were crowded into the hallway from all of the different classes as they evacuated the wing of the building.

"Why is no one panicking? Two fireworks just exploded in our classroom and everyone is just ambling along. Those girls are texting on their phones!" Itachi pulled the rubber band out of his hair and tied it back again.

"It's because Deidara blows stuff up all the time around here. They never prove it's him though, even if they know it is. No film or witnesses." Kisame shoved a few dawdling students into the lockers to clear the way, Itachi and Sasori trailing swiftly behind him.

"So this is a regular occurrence?" Itachi brushed a bit of the dust from the sleeve of his jacket and hurried down the front steps after his companion.

"At least once a month, but he does smaller stuff more often." Sasori jumped down each step individually and sprinted to keep up with his taller classmates. "We had a test after lunch, but now they have to let us out to investigate the explosions."

"But there were witnesses that it was a firework." Itachi loosened his tie and undid the top two buttons on his shirt. He slung his blazer over his shoulder and hurried to keep in step with Kisame. A ruckus off to the left of the courtyard drew his attention. "What's going on over there?"

"Idiot's gone and got himself into another fight. Suppose we should go get him?" Sasori nodded at Kisame's question and sped after the enormous teen, Itachi following closely on their heels. A stream of swear words that even a sailor would have qualms about repeating floated from the center of the ring, and Itachi finally understood the situation a bit better.

"That's Hidan right? Does he fight often- Be careful!" Itachi tackled the brunette in front of him to the ground, a small firework buzzing directly over his head. He looked down at the fierce-looking girl that he'd knocked out of the way of the explosive until she heaved him off of her and jumped to her feet. "Are you alright?" Itachi stood and brushed himself off, ignoring the call of 'Sorry' from the blonde that was heading his way.

"Fine." The girl blushed under the large tattoos that covered her cheeks and hurried after her friend, glancing back at Itachi when he shrugged and ran after his fellow gang members.

"Who was that, Hana? Is he new?" Kurenai tucked a bit of her overly curly hair behind her ear and pressed her lips together when her normally tough friend blushed.

"He just transferred into my class from Japan. I thought he was kind of a geek when I first saw him, but he actually seems cooler than I thought." Hana adjusted her ponytail when Kurenai smacked her upside the head. "What?"

"He's with Fish Boy, Tiny Tim, and Pyro Boy over there trying to break up the idiot albino's fight." Kurenai frowned and pointed a red-nailed finger at her best friend. "Akatsuki, girl. Off limits." Kurenai looked at the group over her shoulder and blushed when she caught Itachi's eye. He waved a two fingered salute and smirked handsomely before dropping his stuff on Sasori and diving into the fight after Kisame. "But there is something about him I can see someone liking. Just wish he was taller."

"Don't we both, 'Nai."

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Itachi rammed his shoulder into Haku's stomach and rubbed it to get rid of the numb feeling when the senior fell to the ground. Hidan hit Zabuza with the handle of some sickle he'd stolen from the groundskeeper's shed and laughed when the older man dropped to the ground in pain.

"Hey! Hey! That's enough man." Kisame knocked the sickle from his friend's hand and dragged him backwards by his shoulders in a strong headlock. The enormous teen glanced at the crowd surrounding them and then at the two older boys cowering in front of them. "Now would be nice Blondie!"

Deidara set off a few bottle rockets outside of the ring of shouting students and smiled when they scattered. Kisame slung Hidan over his shoulder and rushed out of the circle, Itachi hurried after them and over toward Sasori and Deidara.

"Do you guys ever get in trouble for this kind of mess?" Itachi was gasping for breath when the group finally made out the front gate of the school where Kakuzu was waiting for them. He fixed his hair and shoved his jacket into his bag.

"Nah. The school's used to it by now. They kinda turn a blind eye, yeah. Besides, Hidan's dad is the mayor and Kakuzu's pop is a big-time lawyer." Deidara explained while looking through his bag, occasionally dropping a few poppers on the concrete sidewalk to startle passersby. "The students think that we're funny, and the one time a parent actually tried to sue, turns out that the fight was three feet off campus and they lost so badly that they moved out of Konoha. We usually just get detention, or at worst, suspension if we get caught, yeah."

"Most of the students are either too embarrassed by the outcome of the fight or are too afraid of us to rat us out, so we don't get caught often. It's not a great deal seeing as we still get busted big time, but if no one says anything, we can slip out of getting in trouble. You've already saved my butt twice in the past two days just by negotiating a teacher out of writing me up." Kisame elbowed Itachi and grinned mischievously. "This is completely normal for us."

Hidan rubbed at a few off the cuts on his hands from where he'd grabbed the sickle, Kakuzu offering to stitch them up for an outrageous price. Kisame refused to put Sasori down, and the red-head seemed to have fallen asleep slung over the blue-haired teen's shoulder. Deidara set off a sparkler and threw it into the street just as a young man drove by and flipped him off. Itachi glanced between all of his companions and flinched when Zetsu jumped over the school wall and took off down the street towards the red-eyed young man's house as fast as he could, the gardener rushing through the school gate and towards the ambling group of teenagers. They all set off in a sprint, turning right at the end of the street, automatically going to Itachi's home, and he wondered when his home became the spot they all instinctively ran for when they were being chased.

"Get used to it, kid. This is the norm for us Akatsuki."

Deidara dropped a firework behind them that filled the entire street with smoke and set the grass on the side of the road on fire. Itachi glanced warily at the group that he was running with, and smiled when Kakuzu tripped Hidan, claiming him to be a sacrifice.

He could get used to this. It was, after all, true that when in the company of good friends, one always acts like the idiot they are inside.

. . . . . . .

End.

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Thanks for reading y'all! I hope you enjoyed it. R & R, love AMB11!


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